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The book describes questions related to ethnic stereotypes operating among Polish gentry. Private diaries and public chronicles of that time provide the "mental image" of the neighbour who, as a rule though not at all times, was presented with a negative bias. An attempt was made to highlight the key issues related to bygone Ukraine found among the memories and reflections.
The author decided not only to analyse the presence of Cossacks and Cossack rebels in Old Polish diaries and chronicles but went forth to research how the attitudes of their authors towards these social and military groups continued to evolve from the 16th to the 18th century. This description is followed by a reconstruction of the vision of the borderland fortress, as recorded in the diaries, and the role it had attributed. Thorough analyses of accounts concerning Kamieniec Podolski and Lvov are followed by discussion of manners of presentation of the exceptional military leaders who operated in Southern and Eastern marches of the Kingdom of Poland, whose ranks include commanders of both Polish and Cossack armies of greatest renown: J. Wiśniowiecki, S. Koniecpolski, B. Chmielnicki, I. Mazepa).
Battle scenes receive separate treatment in the book: they are perceived as one of the key themes that put those reminiscential narrations in order. Discussion of ordering the themes leads to the structural analysis of Old Polish diaries and chronicles focusing on explanation of features of their composition and style.
The final chapters of the books concentrate on the diarists' image of Ukraine in a later period: from late 18th to early 19th century. This aids to grasp the continuity or disappearance of certain themes in following centuries and the emergence of new aspects of the question.
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